Hatters can still strengthen if transfer listed trio stay

Jonathan Smith has been transfer listed by Luton

Long-serving Jonathan Smith, plus Jake Gray and Josh McQuoid were all made available by boss Nathan Jones, with all three having a year to run on their contracts.

Luton have already acted early by bringing in Alan McCormack and Marek Stech so far, and when asked if the club could still pursue their targets if all three can’t find new employers, Sweet said: “Yes, that’s a risk you take in football.

“The transfer listed players are players that are really unfortunate as I think there aren’t many that we genuinely feel couldn’t have an involvement next year in some respects.

“They’re good players, so other clubs will see the advantage and the value of those players, but we can’t have all the sweets in the sweets shop.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had a season where there’s a couple of stragglers in the squad and that doesn’t make them bad boys either.

“Nathan Doyle last year had a long injury, Mark O’Brien had a couple of niggling injuries, look what he did at the end of the season.

“That was a great move for Mark, I’m pleased for him. There are other players, similar players, who will do similar things to that.”

Although not definitely ruling out that the trio could ever play for Town again, Sweet will do his utmost to ensure they all find the best club available to them.

He added: “Maybe (they could play for Luton), it depends if we find replacements.

“It might be more difficult for one or two, as if we put a player on the transfer list then we’ve got to have the absolute conviction that we can conclude that.

“We genuinely believe that we won’t have any difficulty in finding the right homes for those players that have been listed and that’s important to us.

“It’s not always about getting the right transfer deal for those listed players, it’s about making sure that they move on to the right place and progress in their careers, no matter what age they are.”